


You Look Like Everything That Matters (Rose Petals, Golden Sashes, China Plates)

by Pepsi (Pepsiiii)



Category: Blue Lock (Manga)
Genre: #bllkexchange, M/M, Royalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26216701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pepsiiii/pseuds/Pepsi
Summary: Rin hums and blows out a puff of smoke. His nose doesn’t burn anymore when he does this, but the heat in his lungs makes the whole room hazy. He looks over a bit from his laid back position and sees Isagi’s eyes. Blue, terribly so.Rin, at that moment (month), realized blue was a beautiful color.
Relationships: Isagi Yoichi/Itoshi Rin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	You Look Like Everything That Matters (Rose Petals, Golden Sashes, China Plates)

**Author's Note:**

> For my partner Jun!! Hope you enjoy babe!!

“What’s your fucking problem with me?”

_ His problem?  _

_ Rin’s problem?  _

Rin stares (you can’t call what he’s been doing for this long anything else but staring at this point) and takes in Isagi’s less than perfect appearance. Champagne spilled on his shirt, the alcohol seeping into the light blouse he wore, outlining his chest and making Rin see red. Isagi looked like a fool, a simple jester compared to Rin. His golden lapel crooked on his chest; the expensive jewelry (diamonds and gold littered all over his collar as if they were nothing more than simple drops of water from the storm raging outside) haphazardly placed around his neck, almost as if he was nothing but a cheap imitation of a prince— a wanna be Rin with too much free time and ever-increasing influence on the thoughts of the youngest Itoshi. The expression on his face (god, Isagi was _ nothing _ and a jack-of-all-trades when it came to infuriating Rin) was that of a man who, perhaps, was in love. He probably wasn’t though. He was simply delusional and Rin (poor, poor Rin) was his chosen icon— a muse for a portrait from hell.

(Rin supposed the devil was always found in the details, and truthfully Rin was finding himself to be a bit of a sinner as of late) 

“You’re  _ obsessed  _ with me. You _LIED_ to me!” Rin hoped the way he spits out the ‘me’ tells Isagi everything he needed to know (acid tasted familiar on his tongue and as such he spoke as one of his castle bound witches would. Clearly, harshly, chemically. The familiar bitterness of hard truths sits waiting on the roof of his mouth, every syllable bringing the reality of their situation closer and closer, Rin doing his damnedest to ignore the way his scowl worsens each time he gets a taste).

“I’m not _ obsessed _ I’m-” 

Rin couldn’t do it anymore. The longing stares; the lingering glances; the soft whispers behind the guise of simple friendship; calls to attention and jumps into action; the hanging (no different than the criminals punished in the town square) off Rin’s every word, every request, every command as if … as if… 

He didn’t want to say it. Nor think it (the bitterness is flooding his mouth now, it's hard to even get a word out with the way the truth burns him from the inside out. His teeth ache as if he ate too much sugar; as if he bit through meat and bone; as if he held an ice cube to his gums). Rin stares (it's all he can do anymore) and ignores the eyes bearing down on the two of them. There is only the shining candlelight of the chandler above them; there is only the now drying stain on Isagi’s shirt (the smell of alcohol and missed opportunities in the air); there is only the broken glass on the floor, the broken expression on Isagi’s face and the broken expression Rin  _ prays _ he isn’t wearing (he is. He’s been wearing it so long that without it he might as well be someone else entirely. He wonders if this is how his brother feels. He feels the bitter taste turn into painful bile in the back of his throat as he ponders his brother). 

In a fit of passion (cowardice), Rin turns away (from Isagi) and walks out of the ballroom, away from it all, into the rain. 

&

They’re getting married.

Rin is at dinner the next night, his face red and stuck in its permanent dull expressionless state. The ham on his plate is too hot to eat, the wine in his glass too red to drink. Rin imagines Isagi’s eyes as he stares at the wine. The deep red, blood-like, crimson red. He can’t get those eyes out of his head. 

Isagi has  _ blue _ eyes. 

(Rin  _ hates  _ the color blue)

Sae tells him as Rin is sipping on the wine ( _ Isagi, Isagi, Isagi).  _ He wishes he could say he was surprised, he wishes he could say that this was outrageous and unfair and many other colorful words but Rin long since came to terms with the fact Isagi Yoichi, was going nowhere far anytime soon. He ignores the weirdly gleeful tone in Sae’s voice (he’s had a soft spot for Isagi since the moment he saw him aimlessly walking the halls in search of  Rin Rin’s room. Rin couldn’t tell you what his infatuation with the other prince was, probably something weird, most likely something shitty) and sips at his wine more tasting Isagi on his tongue (he doesn’t trust his mind nor his mouth anymore. Words stumble out in sentences that never should’ve been spoken, wine tastes like heated moments between the haze of everyday business, the truth almost has a fruity twinge to it. Nothing makes sense anymore. Rin sips on).

&

It's a week before the wedding. Rin is sitting in the garden with a silent Isagi staring at him. Oh, how Rin hates that word. 

“Did you hear the news?” Rin asks out into the open air. It's summer and the smell of heat and pond water fills his nose. His skin burns but not for the reasons some may think. Isagi doesn’t answer his question. Rin didn’t expect him to. 

“We’re getting  _ married.”  _ He knows how he sounds. He’s glad he can’t see Isagi’s face (it's easier to hold back when he isn’t looking at him. Everything is easier when he isn’t looking at him).

(“ _ You already like each other! Your marriage is about happiness, not political gain” his mother told him. He doesn’t know why Isagi was allowed back. He doesn’t know why she let someone back after… after what he did.) _

“I’m sure you’re over the moon. Finally, everything goes according to plan.” Was there a plan? Rin couldn’t say. He sits and looks off at the town below the hill the garden sits on and listens to the silence in the air. He thinks of breakfast and his soon to be delivered lunch, of promises spoken over candlelight and stale bread. 

“I’ve never been happier.” 

Rin doesn’t look at him, why should he? He knows what he’ll see. But it doesn’t matter. He hears the smile and the tears. They sound like fall and rivers leading into ponds; like shoelaces being tied too tightly; like something Rin never wants to hear again.

&

Rin hadn’t known Isagi for long.

_ A friend for hire  _ (Sae called it  _ prostitution  _ but Sae was a piece of shit who loves to torture Rin, so what did he know?). 

Rin had always been a lonely child, having trouble connecting with those around him, well… no, no he was fine with the many adults and significant rulers that passed through the castle gates. Where he began to lose himself was around those his age, the younger princes and princesses, royalty as a whole who weren’t yet capable or willing to have an adult conversation (or any conversation) with Rin. 

(Rin wondered what counted as an adult. He was long since old enough to officially take over the kingdom should he need to, he could be married off, he could conquer a separate country in war… what was he missing? Sae said Rin wasn’t bright enough to understand why he was still treated like a child. Rin, an introspective man at heart agreed with him.)

No one had conversations with Rin. 

So in comes Isagi, on a golden platter riddled with rhinestones and white roses. Beautiful, elegant, cheap, simple. That’s how Rin described Isagi before (he wishes he could define Isagi so easily now). Simple mainly. Everything about Isagi was simple. He didn’t think the hired friend would be appearing so early but, who was he to question things?

When they first met Isagi was sitting in the library, a grand place with more books than Rin could ever read (he read them all), he sat at one of the empty arm chairs, a simple book of fables sitting in his hand. Rin had read the book at one point, probably as a child, and he had decided he didn’t like them. 

Isagi didn’t know that though.

“What’s your favorite story?”

Rin, at the time, didn’t know this man sitting in his library (he doesn’t know most of the people in the castle truly) nor did he know why he was speaking so easily to a prince. He didn’t know about anything pertaining to Isagi. 

“I don’t  _ read _ children’s stories.”

“Ah— you’re illiterate?”

“ _ What?” _

“Well, I just assumed- you emphasized the ‘read’ in that sentence so, well. You know.”

Rin couldn’t say he’s insulted. He didn’t care that much, against what his expression might say. He couldn’t, no, wouldn’t say anything. Rin wasn’t a conversationalist. 

Rin was a man with nothing to do and a pipe waiting to be smoked. He sits down, loads the pipe with some tobacco, lights the end with a nearby candle and breathes in, ignoring the eyes watching him as he did.

They did this many times. For a month Rin would find his way back into the library and every time without fail Isagi (or as Rin knew him,  _ Nuisance _ ) was there, reading that same book of fables. Rin smoked, Isagi read. Their paths, ever close, never crossed.

Until it did. 

Rin spoke out one day. A question (maybe brought on by boredom, maybe brought on from actual curiosity. Maybe, just maybe it was… ) of “which fable are you on now?”.

Isagi, startled by the sudden voice, looks up and blushes a tad.

“Oh, currently? Cinderella!”

Rin hums and blows out a puff of smoke. His nose doesn’t burn anymore when he does this, but the heat in his lungs makes the whole room hazy. He looks over a bit from his laid back position and sees Isagi’s eyes. Blue, terribly so. 

Rin, at that moment (month), realized blue was a beautiful color.

They’re together every day now. Silent hours spent in the library now replaced with brisk walks through the garden, bright laughs in Rin’s study, simple secrets inside the kitchens. Rin fell, and god he fell hard. 

Isagi’s laugh (comparable for bells no different than those at the gates of heaven, or maybe like that of the barks from the hounds from hell… both having a way of bringing Rin to attention and clearing his mind of all else) would echo around Rin’s room as they sat on his bed, basking in the beauty of a beautiful day of nothing. They’re laying apart but sometimes when Isagi stretches or when Rin shifts to his right, their hands graze each other— touching for just a moment. Rin feels ice in his veins and flames licking at his toes when this happens, like everything came together and Rin was terribly underprepared for it. 

He doesn’t know what to do with himself when Isagi grabs him hand one day, hesitantly interlocking their fingers. They’re standing in the hallway, watching the different servants run around to prepare for an important council meeting happening that day. Rin feels his heartbeat, the sound ringing in his ears louder than any plates clattering or stomp of people running past. His face hopelessly red as he looks to the side, away from Isagi and towards an open window— tightening his grip, feeling Isagi’s thumb grazing his hand softly. If he gasps, no one hears it.

Isagi kisses Rin like they’re lovers in the forest. They dance around the bushes and ferns, swirling around the wood and branches as if the leaf-littered floor was a ballroom fit for a king. Isagi leads, Rin follows dutifully. The sound of music plays in their ear, the orchestra of their lungs playing the ever loved  _ ‘symphony of laughter’. _ The sound of their chuckles and taunts hit the bark and fly into the sky, far from them, far from their hands (intertwined), their eyes (crinkled), their smiles (real), their breaths (in sync). A bird flies above them as Isagi leans Rin up against the tree and kisses him.

Isagi kisses him like he’s kissed before and yet never felt a thing. Isagi kisses him like he was more than a simple servant paid to be here; kisses Rin as if this was more than just a simple romp between pals. Isagi leans in and pecks his lips, as if asking for permission, urging Rin’s head forward (chasing after him). Rin’s hands cup Isagi’s cheeks as they part for air. A storm is coming, Rin can smell it in the air.

“A storm is near.”

Rin whispers on Isagi’s lips. They leaned back into each other as the smell of rain and revolutions filled Rin’s nose. He ignores it and tastes his tobacco on Isagi’s tongue. He wonders, as he lets Isagi have his way with him, if this is what love was. Dancing in the forest as if a ballroom was watching, laughing like the world was worth the trouble, kissing like they… well they… 

Isagi places kisses on Rin’s jaw and he allows himself to stay in the moment, to smell the trees and grass around them. He allows himself the luxury of the calm before whatever storm comes, knowing a summer shower was far too warm, far too light to hurt him in any significant way. 

&

Rin meets Bachira about 6 months after Isagi. 

Bachira is wearing a deep red suit adorned with gold. He’s delivered to the castle on white horseback and smiles at Rin like he’s paid to. He looks like rhinestones and white roses— beautiful, elegant, and new. He meets Rin and kneels before him with a smile, pearly and sweet, and kisses his hand saying a simple “it’s an honor to meet you” before rising again. 

“This is your official companion.” His mother says into the entryway (Rin isn’t listening anymore).

“I already have one. Isagi, mother. The blue-eyed boy.”

She thinks for a moment and smiles. 

“Isagi? No dear he isn’t your— mm… no he… mm…”

His mother calls for the guards. Sae watches and Rin feels sick.

_ “I may have been bought for your pleasure and need for social interaction, but I’m very happy.” _

_ “I have no problem living for you and you alone Rin.” _

_ “You’re a prince, but you’re a person too.” _

_ “If I could be yours I would be fulfilled.” _

_ “Rin I lo—” _

So, come to find out— Isagi snuck in.

He was never his assigned friend. 

He was just a guy. Who got his hands on a decently made suit. 

Rin goes to the ball the night and sees him, he sees him there and he, 

Well—you know what happens then.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed go read my other fics :) comment your thoughts, praise me insistently, go on twitter and yell at me to be productive. It really means a lot when you do!
> 
> //Twt//@Burnttoastwbttr


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